The 23rd Annual PirateFest kicked off on Friday afternoon and into the night for season ticket holders. Nothing was too out of the ordinary about this year, but it was once again a solid time.

Cutch, Clint Barmes, Jose Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez sign autographs:

The highly-anticipated Pirates management Q&A, which didn’t live up to expectations:

New (old) alternate hat and jersey to be worn on Sundays in 2013 that will pay tribute to the Bucs of the early 1970s:

ROOT Sports will bring back Monday Night Classics this winter, and here’s the schedule:

The crowd was pretty big for the STH night, so expect it to be crowded on Saturday and Sunday as well. Pretty much everything you’d expect at PirateFest made a return, including batting cages, autographs, games with prizes, and other booths to check out some cool baseball stuff and pick up a few free items. If you’re looking for a Russell Martin shirt or new Sunday hat/jersey, then you can check out the small store right by the entrance. The game-used authentic store is very large, and has some awesome memorabilia from all different years, especially 2012. The management Q&A was highly anticipated, but most fans asked standard questions and Huntington/Coonelly/Hurdle gave pretty thoughtful and true answers. They seemed to loosen up because the crowd was all STH, but Saturday and Sunday could be interesting with some upset fans attending. Just about every fan-favorite player will be attending this weekend, so you can pick up some autographs. Check out a full autograph schedule here. If you’re looking for a baseball fix and have been missing the Bucs, definitely head down to the convention center this weekend.

Like this:

We had the opportunity to head down to the season ticket holder batting practice at PNC Park tonight. After taking a few cuts in the cages, we headed to the Hall of Fame Club for a light dinner. In the Club, they were playing a video on loop of the 2013 promotions.

There were four in particular that really stood out:

– A.J. Burnett Free Shirt Friday
Friday, April 12th vs. Cincinnati

– Andrew McCutchen Bobblehead
Saturday, April 20th vs. Atlanta

– A.J. Burnett Bobblehead
Saturday, May 18th vs. Houston

– Replica Sunday Alternate Hat
Sunday, June 16th vs. Los Angeles

The introduction of the new Sunday alternate jersey has been highly anticipated. There is a replica alternate jersey giveaway on August 4th, but they unfortunately did not have a picture of it on the slide show. That hat obviously looks nothing like this possible mock-up we found a few weeks back.

The yellow crown with black bill would certainly be an interesting look. Based on the picture, we assume it’s similar to the hat worn in the early ’70s:

The Pirates wore a comparable uniform back in 2011 when they celebrated the 1971 World Series:

However, this leaves us unsure of how the jerseys will turn out. They could be similar to the ones above, but who knows if they will to go back to that style.

Anyway, more of the promotions should be on display at PirateFest this weekend. Hopefully they reveal the Sunday alternate jersey as well.